Isla Fisher finds her comfort zone in supporting roles

By Roger Moore

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Posted:
05/23/2013 01:00:00 AM PDT

Updated:
05/23/2013 02:29:27 PM PDT

At some point as she was hitching up her fishnet stockings and having her lips painted bee-sting bright to play the working-class tart Myrtle in "The Great Gatsby," Isla Fisher had an attack of conscience.

"I was pretty tacky and man-crazy in 'Wedding Crashers.' And maybe in 'Bachelorette,' I kind of hit bottom. Now, I'm playing Myrtle, who is as cheap as they come.

"I had to ask myself, 'Am I taking roles that will make my father proud?' "

She laughs. "I mean, a nymphomaniac in 'Wedding Crashers,' a gold-digging cheater in 'Gatsby' and in 'Bachelorette,' I was a coke-(rhymes with "floor"). There seems to be a pattern here."

Go-to funny woman

"Leading lady" isn't in the cards for every actress who takes her shot at the movies. The Australian found that out in 2008-09, when the newly famous funny woman was on everybody's shortlist to star in this romantic comedy or that farce.

"I realized when I did 'Confessions of a Shopaholic' that this business of 'carrying a movie' was not something I wanted to do," Fisher, now 37, says. "The pressures of being the lead, with a young family, were too much. I have two kids, and I love working on movies these days, where the workload is shared."

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She's married to "Borat" star Sacha Baron Cohen. The hours and the priorities are different when you're married and a parent, so she seeks out supporting player roles -- in "Bachelorette," a "Bridesmaids" with the gloves off; in "Now You See Me," a magicians' heist picture opening at the end of the month; and in "Gatsby." Myrtle is the woman with whom Daisy's husband, Tom (Joel Edgerton), is cheating, the very opposite of his well-bred Daisy Buchanan.

"Now You See Me" (May 31) casts Fisher as one of the Four Horsemen (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco are the others), magicians commissioned to pull of large-scale tricks that turn out to be heists.

"I love the idea of magical Robin Hoods getting up to mischief, robbing from the rich -- banks -- and giving to the audience," she says. "I got to train with Dorothy Dietrich, the first lady magician to catch a bullet with her teeth.

"We were all humbled by how difficult magic is, and we came away from the film with a few tricks we can trot out at parties, too!"

The roles she's playing these days are often dramatic, with funny touches. She hasn't abandoned comedy, she says. "But film by film, I've found myself being more interested in parts that turn out to be dramatic. Henley ("Now You See Me"), for instance, is this independent, strong woman with this anarchist streak about her. There's this ambiguous morality to her. You don't know if what they're doing is good or bad, and you sense that she doesn't, either."

From lead to ensemble

Co-star Jesse Eisenberg describes Fisher as "instinctively able to find something funny, even in situations that aren't. She's one of those people who can improvise a laugh into a moment that needs it."

Even in dramas, Fisher says she still loves "tapping into my inner idiot. But Hollywood doesn't offer that many funny roles for women and I have to go where the good work is rather than pick a genre and stick to it."

So, even though her planned "female 'Hangover' " comedy, "Desperados," is still on hold, look for her to share the screen in a new Elmore Leonard ("Get Shorty") adaptation set in Miami. And expect more ensemble work for the time being.

"I hope I play a few leads when my family's a little older," she says. And she really hopes Hollywood remembers that she can when that time comes.